Happy birthday to Shreya Ghoshal.

Happy birthday to Shreya Ghoshal.
The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to sweet singer Shreya Ghoshal on 12th March, 2011. From national awards, Zee Cine Awards, Starscreen awards and filmfare awards, she had remained a frequent recipient of the awards due to her sheer brilliance.

Bollywood films in the 50s, 60s and 70s were dominated by Lata, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, Asha, Suman Kalyanpur, etc. In the 80s and 90s Alka Yagnik and Kavita Krishnamurty made a very notable contribution in bollywood films. Shreya Ghoshal had established herself the future singer of bollywood cinema for the last few years.Born in a Bengali family in Rawatbhata, in Kota district of Rajasthan, Shreya Ghoshal learnt classical music from Mahesh Chandra Sharma. She participated in the musical competition in the TV Channel titled Saregamapa, and when she reached the finals after defeating renowned female singers, the producers, directors and composers were moved by her performance.

She made her presence felt with her song in the film Devdas, directed by Sanjay Leela Banshali, with the song “bairi piya” and after that she never had to look back. Just like Sonu Nigam had created a gharana by himself and composers agree about his versatility, similarly Shreya Ghoshal is undoubtedly the future of Indian playback singing.She received the filmfare award for the best female singer along with Kavita Krishnamurty for the song “dola re” from the film Devdas, picturised on Madhuri Dixit and Aiswariya Rai. Her other hits songs include “jadu hai nasha hai” from the film Jism. She also amazed the listeners with the song “piyu bole, piya bole” picturised on Vidya Balan, from the film Parineeta, where Sonu Nigam sang it for Saif Ali Khan. The sweetness of her voice matched the period (late 19th century) when singers of the Bengali traditional families used to present their talent in soft style

She also the song “apne aansoo peene ke liye” from the film Paheli, very well, along with powerful performance from Rani Mukherjee and Shahrukh Khan in the film. She also received filmfare award for the best singer for her song in the film Guru, titled “barsdo re” composed by AR Rehman.
She had song notable Bengali songs like “pagla hawa” in The Bong Connection, “mon diye mon niye” in Agnipath, etc. In 2010, her song “bahara bahara” in the film I Hate Luv Stories was striking. She was extremely sweet in the duet song “tu ne to palbhar me chori kiya re jiya” with Sonu Nigam, in the film Dabanng, which went to do a business worth 150 crores. With a number of songs which are going to be released in different films in 2011, she is expected to continue her good work and the viewers and listeners expect her best in the years to come.

Karan Johar's We Are Family does not have that much firepower.

Karan Johar’s We Are Family does not have that much of firepower.

Producer Karan Johar had come with another film We Are Family which is recently released. It is directed by Siddharth Malhotra. The film had been the remake of the Hollywood film Stepmom.

But the film does not the firepower of usual Karan Johar’s films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, or Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. At that time Karan Johar also directed those films. There was lot of pomp and grandier relating to them and the films ended up being blockbusters.

We are Family had strong performers in different roles including Kareena Kapoor, Kajol and Arjun Rampal. Kajol was shown in the family being an ideal mother caring for her three children Anchal Munjal, Diya Sonecha and Nominath Ginsburg.

Even after divorce Kajol fulfilled the mother’s duties. Arjun Rampal got involved with another girlfriend played by Kareena Kapoor. After sometime the situation compelled both Kajol and Kareena to stay under the same roof. While Kajol was concerned with the family, Kareena was interested only about her career.

The rest of the film hovered around the battle of the two mothers in the same house. As far as the success of the film is concerned it does not have the firepower of Karan Johar’s other films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. One of the negative aspects is in respect of the same starcast. Kajol had done a great job in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. But the viewers sometimes suffer from monotony after seeing the same actor and actress in the films of the common producer.

Eminent directors in Indian film industry had shuffled with their starcasts. Bimal Roy used Balraj Sahani in Do Beegha Zamin, Dilip Kumar in Devdas, Sunil Dutt in Sujata. Gulzar used Sanjeev Kumar in Mausam, Jeetender in Kinara, Uttam Kumar in Kitaab. Ramesh Sippy used Shammi Kapoor in Andaz, Dharmender in Sholay, Shashi Kapoor in Shaan, Rishi Kapoor in Saagar, Dilip Kumar in Shakti. If the viewers see the same actor in films after films of the common director or produced they get bored. It is high time Karan Johar should look for other alternatives.

The music of Shankar Ehsaan Loy was impressive in the film. His songs “ankhon me needen” sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Shreya Ghoshal and “Hamesha and Forever” sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal had been very impressive.

The film will do good business. But it is not of the same quality as Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.

Is Sunidhi Chauhan still in a dominating position in bollywood music?

Is Sunidhi Chauhan still in a dominating position in bollywood music?

Very strangely the world of bollywood singers had got more competitive and diversified. Few years back the contest for the top female playback singer was between Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Alisha Chinoy, Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal.

Sunidhi Chauhan, born on August 14th, 1983, stormed bollywood music with her brilliant performance in the song “ruki ruki si zindagi” in Ram Gopal Verma’s film Mast. Her powerful westernized intonation and presentation had created an interest in most composers to cast her in westernized songs and also folk songs.

She made her presence strongly felt in songs like “desi girl” in Dostana, composed by Vishal Shekhar, “race sanson ki” in Race, composed by Pritam, “dance pe chance” in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, composed by Salim Sulaiman, “kaisi peheli” in Parineeta, composed by Shantonu Moitra, to name a few. She got nominations for the best female singer in filmfare awards a number of times.

She won the filmfare award for the best female playback singer in the film Omkara, for the song “beeri jalaile”. But the scenario had changed in the last couple of years. Along with the dominance of ace singers like Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal, Alisha Chinoy and others, new female singers had entered the competitive scenario.

The most popular songs of 2009, had been “genda phool” sung by Rekha Bharadwaj from film Dilli 6, composed by AR Rehman, and “iktaara” sung by Kavita Seth from film Wake Up Sid, composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, creating a new trend in recent times. In addition to that, other singers like Mahalakshmi Iyer, Shilpa Rao, had created stiff competition for the already established singers like Sunidhi Chauhan.

The question that hovers in the minds of music lovers that is Sunidhi Chauhan safe at her dominating position in 2010, when upcoming singers had divided the singing scenario into more compartments. Recently Sunidhi Chauhan had been judging Indian idol contestants with Anu Malik and Salim Merchant herself. She herself is also looking for new voices. Time will tell, when Sunidhi Chauhan can keep up her good work and strong presence felt in bollywood films.

IIFA awards are action replay of filmfare awards.

IIFA awards are action replay of filmfare awards.

This year’s IIFA awards are announced in June, 2009. Most of the awards were action replay of the filmfare awards given this year.

Hrithik Roshan won the IIFA award for the best actor for his performance in the film Jodha Akbar. He deserved it and viewers are happy that IIFA had acknowledged it. He won the filmfare award for the best actor also for the performance in the same film earlier this year. Ashutosh Gowarikar won the IIFA award for the best director for the direction of the film Jodha Akbar. He received the filmfare award for the best director too earlier this year. Films like Jodha Akbar require lot of hardwork, sincerity and monumental task with cast and crew. It is good that his immense dedication was rewarded.

Priyanka Chopra won the IIFA award for the best actress for the performance in the film Fashion. Shreya Ghoshal won the IIFA award for the best female singer for the song “teri ore teri ore” from Singh is Kinng. Javed Ali won the IIFA award for the best male singer for his song “jashne-bahara” from the film Jodha Akbar.

Javed Akhtar also won the best lyricist award for the lyrics written for songs in the film Jodha Akbar. AR Rehman won the best composer award for his music composition in the film Jodha Akbar. Kangana Ranaut won the best supporting actress award for her performance in the film Fashion. Rajesh Khanna won the lifetime achievement award at the IIFA.

Shahrukh Khan won the male star of the decade award, while Aishwarya Rai won the female star of the decade award. Abhishek Bacchan won the best comedian award for his performance in the film Dostana, while Akshay Khanna won the best villain award for his performance in the film Race.

With few exceptions almost the same recipients of filmfare awards won the IIFA awards. Some of the good work again got unnoticed, for example, for example Pritam’s music in Sinng is Kinng, Vishal Shekhar’s music in Dostana, Amir Khan’s superlative performance in Ghajini.

But again best debutant awards for Farhan Akhtar in the male category ( for Luck by Chance) and Asin in the female category (for Ghajini), are encouraging signs. IIFA should start second best performance awards for all categories to encourage better performances of all the performers in bollywood industry.

Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra won filmfare awards for best actor, actress in 2009

Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra won filmfare award for best actor, actress in 2009.

Hrithik Roshan had won the filmfare award for best actor in 2009 for his brilliant performance in the film Jodha Akbar. He won it for the fourth time. He won filmfare award for best actor previously for films like Kahona Pyar Hai, Koi Mil Gaya, Dhoom 2, etc. He had done a brilliant work and deserved the award. But some of the critics raised eyebrows in respect of Amir Khan not getting filmfare award even after brilliant performance in the film Ghajini.

Priyanka Chopra rightly got the best actress award for her brilliant performance in the film Fashion. In fact the team of Fashion won a number of awards. Kangana Ranaut got the filmfare award for best actress for her performance in the film Fashion. Arjun Rampal won the best supporting award for the film Rock On.

AR Rehman again won the award for best composer for the film Jane Tu Ya Jane Na. It was a bit strange. He had given even better music for the film Jodha Akbar, Yuvvraaj and Ghajini. Pritam, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Vishal-Shekhar had very bad luck as their music in the films Race, Rock On and Dostana were very popular and entertaining. AR Rehman got it for the 8th time. He is on the way to break Shankar- Jaikishan’s record for winning the filmfare award for 9 times.

Javed Akhtar won the best lyricist award for the lyrics of the song “jashn-e-bahara” from the film Jodha Akbar. Sukhwinder Singh won the best male playback singer unnecessarily for the song “haule haule” from the film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Sonu Nigam sang a much better song “in lamhon ke” in the film Jodha Akbar. Similarly Shreya Ghoshal won the best female playback singer award for the song “teri ore” from Singh is Kinng, ahead of Alka Yagnik for the song “tu muskura” in the film Yuvvraaj.

Ashutosh Gowarikar won the best director award for the film Jodha Akbar. Jodha Akbar was even adjudged the best film of the year. Bhanu Attaiya and Om Puri won the lifetime achievement award. Om Puri deserved it 10 years back. Other than Nasirruddin Shah no other had shown the level of verstality that Om Puri had shown in both commercial films and parallel cinema.

Farhan Akhtar won the best male debutant award for the film Rock On. Imran Khan won the same award for the film Jane Tu Ya Jane Na. Asin won the best female debutant award for her performance in the film Ghajini.

Sahana Goswami won the jury award for best actress for the film Rock On. Manjit Singh won the jury award for best actor for the film Oye Lucky Lucky Oye.

It has been seen in the past that Filmfare award has done injustice to many actors actresses composers singers in the past as well. Bhupinder Singh never received any filmfare award for best singer. Madanmohan never received filmfare award for best composer. Dharmender, Jeetender, Rajender Kumar, Pradeep Kumar never received best actor award. Whereas, Shahrukh Khan won the award for 7 times. So it is not surprising that Amir Khan’s brilliant work in Ghajini, Sonu Nigam’ brilliant singing in Jodha Akbar, Alka Yagnik’s brilliant singing in Yuvvraaj, Pritam’s music in Singh is Kinng and Race, went unrewarded. For the winners the awards can give motivation for better work. For others they should concentrate on better work, because filmfare awards are given through public choice and it is not award which is chosen by experts.